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The Croatian Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes (Agencija za mobilnost i programe Europske unije) has published a brochure titled Horizon 2020 Success Stories in Croatia, which features two of our H2020 projects - EXCELLABUST and subCULTron! We are proud to have taken part in these successful projects and we invite you to take a look at the brochure and read about subCULTron and EXCELLABUST, as well as other stories about successful projects in our country.

Nikola Mišković participated in the presentation of the results of the pre-study regarding the possibility of creating a science park in Croatia. The presentation was conducted in cooperation by Saab AB Group, Lindholmen Science Park from Sweden, Ericsson Nikola Tesla and UNIZG-FER on 13th December 2018, at UNIZG-FER.

The study was presented to the representatives from the Ministry of Science and Education, the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, the City of Zagreb, the Croatian Employers' Association, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the industry, the academic community and the support institutions from Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka and Split.

The training was held from 5th to 7th December 2018 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) and given by following speakers: Vesna Torbarina (Croatian Chamber of Economy), Manuel Jiménez Díaz (Morera&Vallejo Group, Spain), Silvia de los Santos (CTA, Spain) and Matko Barišić (ABB, Norway).

During the three days of the workshop, participants learned a lot about H2020 projects, how to manage them, what expert profiles are, how R&D management works in a big company and how to choose the right calls for our EU projects.

On 5th of December 2018, our colleague Marin Bek from H2O Robotics presented our innovation the aPad to a jury of experts at the ICT 2018 event in Vienna, Austria. The innovation was competing in the European Commission's competition the Innovation Radar Prize 2018, in the category for Excellence Science. The winners were announced in the special award ceremony on the closing day of ICT 2018 and the Technical University of Denmark won the category for Excellent Science. Although we were not rewarded, it was a great honor to present our innovation to the experts composed of a panel of investors and entrepreneurs and also to be recognized by European Commision as one of the best European innovators.

Nikola Mišković, Antonio Vasilijević, and Đula Nađ participated at 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Underwater System Technology: Theory and Applications (USYS’18) held from1st until 3rd December 2018 in the International Academic Exchange Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China. Nikola Mišković gave a plenary talk entitled“Cooperative and not-so Cooperative Marine Robotics” and Antonio Vasiljevićpresented the paper named “Autonomous Surface Vehicles as Positioning and Communications Satellites for the Marine Operational Environment - Step toward Internet of Underwater Things”.

At the Workshop on Marine Robots, which was held in the scope of the conference, Antonio Vasilijević gave an invited lecture named “Human Hearing and Marine Robotics” and Đula Nađ gave an invited lecture named “From Underwater Localization towards Diver-Robot Interaction”.

USYS’18 was an excellent occasion for LABUST team to disseminate our current R&D activities and to meet researchers, scientists, engineers, as well as industrial professionals from Asia.

which will be held from 5th to 7th December 2018 at Seminar Room of ZARI Department (C09) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) and by following speakers: Vesna Torbarina (Croatian Chamber of Economy), Manuel Jiménez Díaz (Morera&Vallejo Group, Spain), Silvia de los Santos (CTA, Spain) and Matko Barišić (ABB, Norway).

During the three days of the workshop, an overview of the H2020 program and its successor (Horizon Europe) will be given to the attendees. H2020 will be explained in more detail, as well as the tools provided by the European Commission for its management. Finally, further specific hints and ideas about managing H2020 projects will be discussed.

Attendees are kindly asked to fill out this Doodle poll to confirm their attendance.

More about the speakers and the training can be found in the detailed news content or here.

The University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) hosted the Open Door Day on 24th November 2018. Igor Kvasić, the new member of LABUST team presented ongoing research activities and equipment. The event aimed at prospective students, their parents, and teachers to learn about the UNIZG-FER experience, to become familiar with available courses, research facilities and to talk to the current students, lecturers and researchers.

LABUST is participating at the University of Zagreb Fair 2018 as part of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (UNIZG-FER) among more than 30 faculties. University of Zagreb Fair 2018 is taking place at Student Centre Zagreb and it will lastfrom 22nd November until 24th November 2018. Our members are presenting current projects and collaborative projects with other groups from UNIZG-FER. This year we set up a pool where visitors can operate our vehicles. We are expecting high attendance of high school students, young faculty students, and other interested parties. This is a great opportunity to attract young people in the world of science, particularly in robotics and underwater systems.

On 22nd of November 2018, Nikola Mišković, ViceDean for Science at UNIZG-FER and Mihaela Vranić, ViceDean for Academic Affairs at UNIZG-FER took part in the daily TV show "Dobro jutro, Hrvatska" (Good morning, Croatia at Croatian national television) as guests, where they announced the Open Door Day event at UNIZG-FER and talked about academic and research activities at the Faculty.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Dr. Edin Omerdić from Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems, University of Limerick gave a tutorial titled "A real-time embedded evaluation board NI myRIO and its applications" on 15th - 16th November 2018 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

The agenda, lecture descriptions, and materials used during the tutorial are available in the repository.

On 15th of November 2018, Ivana Mikolić and Matko Orsag from LARICStook part in the daily TV show "Dobro jutro, Hrvatska" (Good morning, Croatia at Croatian national television) as guests, where they talked about the European Robotics Week 2018,and how it will be manifested in Croatia.

On 15 November 2018, Ivana Mikolić, Ivan Lončar, and Igor Kvasić participated in the Implementation workshop of the Croatian Science Foundation held in the hall of the Rectorate of the University of Zagreb. The workshop was held within the framework of the European Social Fund project “Young Researchers' Career Development Project – Training of Doctoral Students”. The main topics of the workshop were guidelines in the implementation phase, submission of periodic reports, salary payments, EPP system and etc.

We did it together! Thanks to your votes, our Laboratory has been selected as one of 20 candidates for Innovation Radar Prize 2018 finals. The great finale will be held in the scope of ICT 2018 event in Vienna (4-6 December 2018) where the jury will decide the winner of each of the five categories. LABUST is competing in category “Excellent Science” - cutting-edge science underpinning tomorrow's technological advances. As a finalist, we will deliver a 3-minute pitch about our innovation, organisation and plans to our EU funded innovation deliver impact in the marketplace. The jury, a panel made of professionals with a track record in entrepreneurship and investment will award the most impressive pitch for each category and also choose the winner of the 2018 Innovation Radar "Grand Prix" Prize. The winners will be announced on the 6th of December in a special award ceremony on the closing day of ICT 2018.

Professor Zoran Vukić and Nadir Kapetanović participated at 2018 IEEE OES Symposium held from 6th November until 9th November 2018 in Rectory Building, University of Porto, Portugal. On 7h November, Nadir Kapetanović presented the scientific paper named "Towards Enhancing the Navigational Accuracy of UUUs Through Collaboration of Multiple Heterogeneous". The authors of the paper are Kapetanović, Nadir (UNIZG-FER), Nađ, Đula (UNIZG-FER), Mišković, Nikola (UNIZG-FER), and Vukić, Zoran (UNIZG-FER).

LABUST will be taking part in ERW 2018 under the robotics@fer.hr brand, together with our colleagues from LARICS and LAMOR! We will participate in the University of Zagreb Fair (22-24 November 2018) and present our work, equipment, projects, as well as opportunities for potential undergraduate, graduate and PhD students, researchers, teachers etc. Also, our laboratory will be open to the public during the Open Day event at UNIZG-FER (24th November 2018) and will show the visitors what it is like to work in our three laboratories. We are looking forward to these events and hope to see you there!

We are delighted to announce thatLABUSThas been selected as one of the top 50 innovators in the European Commission's "Innovation Radar Prize 2018" in the category of "Excellent Science" for aPad project. Voting is now open and it will be available until on November 12th, 2018. This prize category aims to recognise excellent scientific work, supported with EU-funding, that is emerging from laboratories around Europe and shows market promise.

The OCEANS 2018 Charleston conference was held from 22-25th October 2018, bringing together 1,500 of the world’s leading marine professionals to network, collaborate, and learn about cutting-edge research, innovations, technologies, and applications in the marine technology and engineering fields. The member of CRIS team Petar Trslić took part in the conference Technical Sessions programme, presenting two papers: “Long-term, inspection class ROV deployment approach for remote monitoring and inspection” (main author Petar Trslić) and “Voxel map based collision detection for underwater manipulators” (main author Matija Rossi). Petar also used this occasion to promote the EXCELLABUST Marine Robotics database. We are looking forward to next OCEANS in Marseille from 17-20th of June 2019.

The H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" will organize the Innovation management training on the topic of:

“Disruptive Business Models and cracking the code of Financial Forecasting"

which will be held by Helena Deane, WestBic, Ireland. The training will take place on Friday, November 16, 2018, starting at 09:15, in the Gray Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

More about the speaker and the lecture is available in detailed news content and here.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Dr. Edin Omerdić from Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems, University of Limerick will hold a tutorial on

"a real-time embedded evaluation board NI myRIO and its applications"

The two-day tutorial will start on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at 14:30 in the Gray Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, and continue the next day on Friday, November 16, 2018, at 14:00 in the same place.

More about the speaker and the tutorial is available in detailed news content and here.

The University of Limerick (UL) hosted the Open Days on the 18th and 19th October 2018. We had more than 12,000 visitors to our campus what was the biggest UL Open Days ever. The event aimed at prospective students, their parents, and teachers to learn about the UL experience, to become familiar with available courses, research facilities and to talk to the current students, lecturers and researchers.
The CRIS team presented ongoing research activities, including the EXCELLABUST project, UL-made inspection class remote operated vehicle (I-ROV) designed for operations in challenging conditions, advanced human-machine interface (HMI) (mixed reality) for interaction with heterogeneous robotic vehicles, and real-time reconstruction of subsea structures. The next Open days will be held in January 2019.

Antonio Vasilijević participated in the EUMR project meeting held on 30th September 2018, during the Breaking the Surface (BtS) workshop in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. Latest Work Package and deliverable progress were discussed as well as the work plan for the forthcoming period. Special attention was given to the first TNA (transnational access) call, just opened in the scope of the EUMR.

Partner UdG presented an animation video for the TNA promotion. The video is available here.

EUMR project has been also presented in the scope of BtS workshop by António Sérgio Ferreira (UPorto) with a lecture EUMarineRobots: The “Oprah” of Marine Robotics.

The EXCELLABUST project meeting was held in Biograd na Moru, Croatia on 4th October 2018 during the Breaking the Surface workshop. The meeting was attended by Zoran Vukić, Nikola Mišković, Ivana Mikolić (all LABUST), Edin Omerdić, Isela Ibrahimović, Daniel Toal (all UL), Marc Carreras (UDG) and Massimo Caccia (CNR). The conclusion of the meeting was the closure of the project and a general overview which has been done in the last three years.

In the scope of the 10th edition of Breaking the Surface, we organised an Innovation Tuesday, the whole dayprogram dedicated to lectures about the creation of corporate spin-offs, on how to attract investments and tips and tricks in building international businesses. Robotics experts and entrepreneurs shared their experience in commercializing robotics-related technologies with the rest of interested participants.

Innovation Tuesday was held on 2nd of October while Breaking the Surface was held from 30th September until 7th October in Biograd na Moru, Croatia.More than 200 participants from marine robotics field and its applications - marine biology, maritime archaeology, maritime security, geology, oceanology etc. participated in BtS programs.

As part of Innovation Tuesday, lecturers from various aspects presented their experience and knowledge.

The 10th jubilee edition of the International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Marine Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface was held from 30th September until 7th October 2018 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia.

Filip Mandić, Anja Babić, Ivan Lončar and Barbara Arbanas from the Laboratory for Robotics and Intelligent Control Systems held a tutorial on underwater measurements using aMussel at Breaking the Surface workshop on 5th October 2018. The tutorial emerged from the work on H2020 project subCULTRon. In the tutorial, they showed how to program an aMussel platform to sink to the bottom, make an underwater measurement, transmit it acoustically to an aPad, return to the surface after a predefined time and SMS measurements to a cell phone.

The 10th jubilee edition of the Breaking the Surface workshop is ahead of us. From 30th September until 7th October 2018, Biograd na Moru, Croatia, will once again host an international interdisciplinary workshop for underwater explorations. Experts, scientists, and students will gather in lectures, demonstrations, and tutorials that combines academic topics in marine robotics and its applications. The workshop includes various scientific areas such as marine robotics, maritime biology, marine archaeology, security and safety, oceanography, etc.

The 11th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics, and Vehicles – CAMS 2018was held from 10th to 12th September 2018 in Opatija, Croatia. Our Laboratory was one of the organizers of the scientific conference which assembled around 100 participants from all around the world.

During July and August 2018, LABUST member Đula Nađ was a guest researcher in the University of Limerick (UL), Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS) where he was supervised by Dr. Edin Omerdić (UL).

LABUST team (Z. Vukić, Đ. Nađ, M. Marković and N. Kapetanović) participated in an exercise called CORKEX 2018 in Cork, Ireland from 23 July to 28 July 2018 within the project Expanded Underwater Robotics Ready for Oil Spills - e-URready4OS. The exercise was carried out onboard the Irish Naval Vessel “Le Roisin” and it was operated from the Naval Base, Haulbowline, Co Cork. The exercise was coordinated by the Irish Coast Guard. Main objectives of the exercise were to expand the already existing URready4OS fleet (from 5 to 12 assets) - provide training to new vehicles teams joining the fleet, to demonstrate the capability of the current URready4OS system and to provide training and transfer of knowledge. Main participants of CORKEX 2018 were the University of Porto, University of Zagreb, University of Cartagena, University of Cyprus, University of Girona and University of Balearic Islands, Irish Naval Service and Irish Coast Guard.

Nikola Mišković, Ivana Mikolić and Barbara Arbanas (LARICS) participated as the Referees in ERL Emergency Tournament 2018 held in La Spezia, Italy from 14th to 20th July 2018. They rewarded the best rookie team and the most creative team with Breaking the Surface vouchers for free attending its 10th edition.

The European Robotics League is an innovative concept for robot competitions focuses on tasks that emergency response robots execute in a realistic emergency environment.

Breaking the Surface (BtS) workshop, which brings together a significant part of the marine community will be held from 30 September until 7 October 2018 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia. On 2nd October 2018., in the scope of the BtS, the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute of the University of Girona along with IQUA Robotics is organizing a workshop to discuss the adoption of conventions in the underwater ROS community. If you plan to attend the underwater ROS workshop please fill this confirmation form and here you can find for more information about the meeting.

given by Prof. Patric Jensfelt, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. The lecture took place on Wednesday, July 11, 2018, in the Gray Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. (UNIZG-FER).

On 27 June 2018, Nikola Mišković participated at the info day for the field Spreading excellence and widening participation in the EU Horizon 2020 programme held in the hall of the Rectorate of the University of Zagreb. He presented the Twinning project EXCELLABUST, as a good practice, and success story in the field of Croatian Spreading excellence and participation. The participants had the opportunity to gain the valuable insights and difficulties faced by project coordinators in the implementation of projects from the initial stage and the selection of the project consortium until implementation and financial and narrative reporting on project results.

As part of the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", dr. Edin Omerdić and dr. Gerald Dooly held a tutorial titled "ROVs for Use in Challenging Conditions: I-ROV & ROV ÉTÁIN" on 14th - 15th June 2018 at the University of Limerick. Gerard Dooly provided a brief introduction to the hardware elements of the UL ROV Étáin prior to travelling into the UL Limerick Docks facility. At UL Limerick Docks students had the opportunity to get a hands-on hardware and software elements of the ROV and a brief training on how to operate the ROV and sub-systems (manual pilot control, copilot interfaces, LARS operation & manipulator control). The lectures on the second day included a description of features and physical layout of system components, standard ROV operation procedures and operation modes and results from ROV maiden voyage in May 2018.

A project meeting was held in Limerick, Ireland on 14th June 2018, one day after the EMRA'18 workshop. The meeting took place at the University of Limerick and all partner institutions were represented. In addition to progress reporting, the main topic of the meeting was organisation of the upcoming Breaking the Surface 2018 workshop.

Nikola Mišković and Ivana Mikolić participated in EUMR project meeting held on 13th June 2018 during the EMRA'18 workshop. In the meeting, they discussed on the latest deliverable phase and reviewed the proposed timeline and process. Each project partner gave a review of its activities for the previous period and presented working plans for the forthcoming period.

EMRA'18 workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications was organized at the University of Limerick from June 12 to June 13, 2018, as a part of EU H2020 Twining project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". The goal of this workshop was to bring together a diverse range of speakers from academia and industry representatives from all around EU, who work in the field of marine robotics. At the workshop, they presented their work, enabled innovative technologies and applications, exchanged ideas, and discussed the development of marine robotics in the future.

The 5th edition of the EMRA workshop took place in Limerick, 12 -13 June 2018. The EMRA’18 was organised by University of Limerick and CRIS under EU projects "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and "EUMR - EUMarineRobots".

As part of the EMRA’18 workshop, we visited Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems (CRIS). CRIS was presented by Dr. Edin Omerdić and Dr. Gerard Dooly. Their work is focused on control systems research and development for field robotics in the domains of marine robotics, airborne robotics, and industrial robotics. The 5th edition of the EMRA workshop took place in Limerick, 12 -13 June 2018. The EMRA’18 was organised by University of Limerick and CRIS under EU projects "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics" and "EUMR - EUMarineRobots".

The SWARMs (Smart and Networking Underwater Robots in Cooperation Meshes) project consortium organised the final project conference on Novel Solutions for Underwater Vehicles in Autonomous Sea Operations. The conference was held on 11th of June 2018 as an introductory event to the EMRA'18 workshop and was co-hosted by the Centre for Robotics & Intelligent Systems.

The primary objective of the SWARMs project has been to expand the use of underwater and surface vehicles (AUVs, ROVs, USVs) to facilitate the conception, planning, and execution of maritime and offshore operations and missions. The conference topics included: development methodologies and novel designs for autonomous maritime missions, data modelling for underwater robotics vehicles, new solutions for sensors and processing algorithms for underwater environments, data processing, 3D mapping, landmark extraction, map matching, relocation, etc. The member of UL team, Edin Omerdic presented a paper on “Active Thruster Fault-Tolerant Control System based on Pattern Recognition Neural Network’”. This was also an opportunity to inform the conference attendees on EXCELLABUST project and our Marine Robotics database.

On Monday, June 11, 2018, the 3rd Innovation Management Training named “Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship” was held at University of Limerick, under H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". This highly interactive training was held by Mr. Fergal Brophy who is an entrepreneurial specialist at UCD Innovation Academy. Besides this, he is a growth planner and the mentor at the Social Innovation Fund (SIF).

The goal of the training was to nurture and develop creative confidence, practice creativity in a fun, safe and collaborative environment, foster an entrepreneurial mindset and to collaboratively develop an innovative solution for an everyday object.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computingof the University of Zagreb (UNIZG FER), Croatian Ministry of Science and Education and The Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFCA) have signed the Grant Agreement “Research Infrastructure Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (INFRA-LAPOST)" on 7th June 2018. The project is contracted within part of Call "Development and strengthening of synergies with horizontal activities of Horizon 2020: Twinning and ERA Chairs", under the "Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014 – 2020”. The agreement was signed by the UNIZG FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić, Minister of Science and Education Blaženka Divjak and Director of the Central Finance and Contracting Agency Tomislav Petrić. Prof. Zoran Vukić attended the signing of the agreement as LABUST representative.

The INFRA-LAPOST project will greatly improve research infrastructure facility and equipment of Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies.

Professor Zoran Vukić, Associate professor Nikola Mišković and UNIZG-FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić were proud to have been invited by Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway to the Republic of Croatia, her Excellency Ms. Astrid Versto to the celebration of Norwegian Constitution Day, on 17 May 2018 in the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb. This friendly gesture of her Excellency is confirmation of excellent cooperation of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb and LABUST. The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb was one of the sponsors of Breaking the Surface workshop last year.

On 10 May 2018, LABUST members Đula Nađ and Filip Mandić participated at annual PhD Day at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb (UNIZG-FER).PhD Day is an annual event at UNIZG-FER that enables PhD students to broaden their research and career perspectives.Đula Nađ presented his rewarded doctorate “Guidance and control of autonomousunderwater agents with acoustically” and Filip Mandić presented current results of his doctoral research on dissertation topic “Control of surface marine vessels for underwater vehicle localization using single range acoustic measurements”.

LABUST team is testing equipment at Pelješac peninsula, Croatia for the upcoming BLUEMED project trial which will be conducted next week in the Baia Bay in Italy. Final preparation for upcoming trial is underway at the two sites in Pelješac, Trstenik in the south side of the peninsula and Drače in the north. LABUST vehicles Lupis (OceanScan LAUV), ASV H2Omni-X (H2O Robotics) and new BlueROV2 (Blue Robotics) are tested.

The two main objectives of testing are to capture some location with Lupis camera to get a mosaic and a 3D model of location and to capture some location with a bathymetric sonar on H2Omni-X to get a bathymetric map with the ability to connect camera and sonar data in order to get a better 3D model.

BLUEMED project aims to support and promote sustainable and responsible tourism development in coastal areas and islands of the Mediterranean. This will be achieved by planning, testing and coordinating Underwater Museums, Diving Parks and Knowledge Awareness Centres (KACs) in 4 pilot sites: Capo Rizutto and Baia bay (Italy), Western Pagasitikos/Sporades (Greece) and Cavtat sites (Croatia).

LABUST member Nikola Mišković participated in the final ceremony of RADDAR programme at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing on May 7, 2018. As part of the ceremony, associate professor Mišković held a presentation on maritime robotics and its application. RADDAR programme is intended for primary school students for learning and developing skills in mathematics and programming.

The proposed research will involve research in advanced signal processing and deep learning with the emphasis on autonomous identification of sonar detected objects from various perspectives in real-time. The participant is expected to carry out research and publish results in conferences and journals, participate in the preparation of proposals for research funding and in the writing of project reports, participate in teaching and mentoring graduate students (at least 90 hours per year).

It's desirable to fill the position before July 2018, but the start date is negotiable. The expected duration of the position is 4 years.

Applicants should provide the following material via email to Prof. Nikola Mišković (Nikola.miskovic@fer.hr). Please use the subject line: “[PhD application]”. Applications will be reviewed as they are received.

given by Stephen Hall, Society for Underwater Technology, London, UK. The lecture took place on Friday,13th April 2018 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb, Croatia.

which will be held byMassimo Caccia, The National Research Council (CNR), Genoa, Italy. The training will take place on 19th April 2018, starting at 15:20, in a seminar room at ZARI, building C, 9th floor. Meet and greet coffee will be at 15:00.

More about the speaker and training is available in detailed news content and here.

LABUST team participated in the workshop “Fundamentals of the intellectual property for the researchers” held in UNIZG-FER on the 28th March 2018. The workshop was organised and held by Mirjana Dozan, Head of the Office for Intellectual Property at UNIZG-FER, Igor Bošnjaković, Senior Adviser at State Intellectual Property Office, and Associate Professor Dubravko Babić from UNIZG-FER. The goals of the workshop were to promote and stimulate scientific research, establish a procedure for identification, protection, and commercialization of intellectual property and help researchers to track and record the intellectual property portfolio.

Nikola Mišković visited King’s College London and Imperial College London, UK on 15th March 2018. At King’s College London, he was hosted by Dr. Daniele Magazzeni and at Imperial College London by Dr. Mirko Kovač. During the visit, he gave an invited talk at both universities on research activities by LABUST with a strong emphasis on potential future collaboration opportunities.

Alongside more than 500 exhibiting companies from 79 countriesLABUST presented its spinoff company H2O Robotics and the EUMarine Robots - EUMR projectat the world's prestigious exhibition for marine science and ocean technology Oceanology Internationalwhich was held from 13 - 15 March2018 in London, UK.

LABUST members Zoran Vukić, Matej Celega, Milan Marković and Marin Bek successfully presented the H2O Robotics product H2Omni-X. Ivana Mikolić took part the in first public appearance of the EUMR project and Nikola Mišković presented EXCELLABUST activities.

All projects and the company had several specific queries with many interested parties (project managers, company directors, research centers and scientific laboratories).

„KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s role in making Stockholm a global cluster for ICT“

and workshop

„Turning research into business – Understanding the impact of technology“

given by Dr. Martin Vendel, KTH Stockholm, Sweden.

The lecture took place on Thursday, 15th March 2018 and the workshop took place on Friday, 16th March 2018 at UNIZG-FER.On both occasions, Dr. Martin Vendel talked about the impact and importance of technology transfer.

FIRST® LEGO® LEAGUE (FLL)is an international program that promotes the interest for the science and technology of youngsters between 10 and 16 years old. They are invited to have fun and get involved in technology through a yearly challenge robotics competition. In the contest, they will have to show their abilities to perform as a team, to innovate and to solve real problems of the society. This year the challenge was related to the water cycle. Girona edition (31st of January 2017) counted on 37 teams (around 350 students)and more than 100 volunteers. The event was a great success and 600+ attendees enjoyed it. More about FLL Girona.

LABUST members Ivana Mikolić, Nadir Kapetanović, and Matej Celega participated in the exhibition of young Croatian creators held in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb on 26th January 2018. They presented ongoing research activities and explained the application of an aPad, autonomous marine surface vehicle. The event was organized as part of the national project “Hrvatska stvara” (Croatia Creates) which aim to increase the interest of young people for technical culture. The main objective of the project is to empower children and youth through education.

LABUST, as part of the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, has signed bilateral project China Croatia Collaboration on Marine Robotic Systems - CC MARS with the Huazhong University of Science and Technology from China. The goal of this agreement isscientific exchange related to the design, modeling, and management of marine robot systems, especially ASVs. During this project, two international conferences on Maritime Robotic Vehicles will be jointly organized. This collaboration will enable, international exchange and transfer knowledge of the field, as well as link academic knowledge with the application needs. Furthermore, this collaborative project will build collaboration between the two laboratories, stimulate scientific exchange and initiate long-term bilateral relations between researchers in the field of intelligent marine systems. LABUST members Nikola Mišković (coordinator), Đula Nađ, Anja Babić and Nadir Kapetanović will participate in this project.

Nikola Mišković attended H2020 FET - Innovation management training on 26th January 2018 at Research Executive Agency in Brussels, Belgium. The European Commission organised training for FET ILP project coordinators. As part of the workshop, they attended both roundtables on prospecting license opportunities and closing license deals and on valorization or commercialization-via bilateral collaborations with industry. In the bilateral meetings, participants were conducting the Innovation Radar exercise and discussed on business coaching services and other European Innovation Council schemes. The project officers discussed aspects of the project’s implementations and grant agreement.

We are delighted to announce that Assoc. Prof. Nikola Mišković has been named ViceDean for Science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb (UNIZG-FER) on 24th January 2018. This appointment confirms his outstanding scientific work and excellence in getting and writing valuable research projects for UNIZG-FER. It also confirms his excellent reputation among the leading scientists in the Republic of Croatia. Nikola Mišković is a Head of the Research Support Centre, an Associate Professor at Department of Control and Computer Engineering and Deputy Head of LABUST at UNIZG-FER. He will begin his new duties next academic year.

Professor Zoran Vukić talked at the panel discussion “World of Robotics in Croatia” held in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb, on 22nd September 2018. The main goal of the event was to present the progress of robotics in Croatia. Invited guests talked about the current situation of robotics in academia, industry, and education. Professor Vukić presented LABUST’s work and emphasized the importance of good preparation for EU work programs. In addition, he gave some interesting projections for robotics in general. All panelists agreed that Croatia has a bright future in robotics, but it’s important to invest more in education and research projects.

Wondering how it was at Breaking the Surface 2017? The brand new after video will show you all. See the short overview of BtS 2017 and recall wonderful memories from unforgettable last summer. Enjoy the video!

LABUST member Matej Celega participated at the 3rdedition of FET2RIN training which was organised in three workshops in Brussels, Belgium: 1st from 28 to 29 September 2017, 2nd from 26 to 27 October 2017 and 3rd workshop from 30 November to 1 December 2017. FET2RIN has organised the third round of training course for Future Emerging Technologies (FET) to help participants to access the market and make a larger impact on society. FET2RIN aims at helping FET projects by overcoming obstacles related to market outreach and accessing business leaders including entrepreneurs, early-stage investors, and crowdfunding communities.

LABUST member Nikola Mišković participated at FET in Horizon 2020 Info Day at Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia on 5th December 2017. An Info Day focused on FET activities, part of the “Future and Emerging Technologies” (FET) programme Horizon 2020, has been organized by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education. Nikola Mišković talked about our experiences in subCULTron (FETPROACT) and aPad (FETOPEN-CSA) projects. The “Future and Emerging Technologies” (FET) programme supports new cutting-edge technologies by strengthening competitiveness and development. This event was a great opportunity to learn from successful past and on-going FET projects, to share new visionary ideas, as well as to participate in a networking session.

Project manager Ivana Mikolić participated at the round table on gender equality in Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing University of Zagreb held in KSET, Zagreb, Croatia on 25th November 2017. The event called FERgirl čajanka (FERgirl tea party) was held as part of the Open Day at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. The main objective of the event was to prove that the study of technical science, such as UNIZG-FER, is accessible to all, regardless of gender. Invited speakers at round table were women who have studied or currently studying at UNIZG-FER. Ivana Mikolić talked about her passion for math and informatics and why she decided to study at UNIZG-FER. Ivana described her student’s days and gave several useful tips to high school students. In a couple of occasions, she proudly presented her important role in LABUST and great passion and dedication toward her job.

LABUST is participating at University of Zagreb Fair 2017as part of the Faculty of electrical engineering and computing (FER) among more than 30 faculties. University of Zagreb Fair 2017 has started today (23rd November) and it will last until 25th November 2017 in Zagreb, Croatia. The event is taking place at Student Center Zagreb. Our members Nadir Kapetanović and Matej Celega presenting current projects and collaborative projects with other groups from FER. Once again, we are expecting high attendance of high school students, young faculty students and other interested parties. This is a great opportunity to attract young people in world of science, particularly in robotics and underwater systems.

LABUST members once again organized the special session “Intelligent underwater systems and technologies” at 7th Conference on Marine Technology in memoriam of the academician Zlatko Winkler, held in Rijeka on November 17th, 2017. Papers at the special session were presented by Zoran Vukić and Antonio Vasilijević. Among other projects, the PlaDyFleet project and its recent results have been presented. The Conference is organised by Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Maritime studies - University of Rijeka, Croatia, and Association for Research and Development of Maritime Industries.

Our members Nikola Mišković, Đula Nađ, and Ivana Mikolić will participate at BLUEMED – 3rd biannual project meeting from 14th until 15th November 2017 in Limassol, Cyprus. BLUEMED partners will discuss project progress and issues. All project partners will present the progress in the project implementation so far, and plans for future activities. LABUST team will present their progress report on WP3 studying and planning for WP4 testing. The event will take place at Elias Beach Hotel in Limassol, Cyprus.

The BLUEMED project aims to support and promote sustainable and responsible tourism development in coastal areas and islands of the Mediterranean. This will be achieved by planning, testing and coordinating Underwater Museums, Diving Parks and Knowledge Awareness Centres (KACs) in 4 pilot sites: Capo Rizutto and Baia bay (Italy), Western Pagasitikos/Sporades (Greece) and Cavtat sites (Croatia).

Our latest and hottest product an aPad won a gold medal at International Trade Fair (IENA 2017) which was held from 2nd November until 5th November 2017 in Nuremberg, Germany. In the competition of more than 800 innovations from 31 countries of the world, Croatian innovators have won nine medals. LABUST won a gold medal for its aPad product in the competition of the Universities, Faculties, and Institutions. aPad is an autonomous unmanned surface marine vehicle that independently communicates with other marine robots and can perform a complex mission to end users. The platform can be applied to different scientific areas such as underwater archeology, marine biology, maritime security, robotics, oceanography, mariculture, and hydrography. Our initial market research, end-users inquiries, and even first acquisition suggest the high market potential of the aPad. The award was taken by Matej Celega, who represented our laboratory at the fair.

Deputy head of LABUST assoc. prof. Nikola Mišković participated in Economic Conference Montenegro 2017 - “Challenges on the path to the European Union”. The conference took place in Hotel Splendid, Budva, Montenegro, from 2nd November until 3rd November 2017. The conference “Challenges on the path to the European Union” gathered around 500 representatives of governments, the business community, scientific and expert public from the Balkans and wider.

The objective of the CUV-ME project is to provide, develop, integrate, and test the hardware and software protocols necessary to advance combined operations between multiple unmanned systems, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), to enhance the navigational accuracy of UUVs, and to improve the operational safety of operators engaged in unexploded ordnance remediation and counter underwater explosive operations. A supporting project objective will be to investigate the Concept of Operations and Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures used during the CUV-ME project as a baseline for integrating this capability into future operational mine countermeasures operations and other naval warfare missions.

With this project LABUST once again proves its capability to be involved in the most challenging type of projects. The TRL (technology readiness level) at the end of the CUV-ME project will be between 6 to 7. The CUV-ME project is a joint RDT&E effort lead by the University of Zagreb’s Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific’s (SSC PAC’s) Unmanned Maritime Vehicles.

The University of Limerick (UL) has hosted an Open Days 2017 event on the 19th and 20th of October 2017. This two-day event allowed a number of visitors (prospective students, their parents and teachers) to learn about the UL experience, to become familiar with available courses, to visit research labs and to talk to the current students, lecturers and researchers.

The MMRRC researchers presented ongoing research activities, including the EXCELLABUST project, and demonstrated the application of virtual reality (VR) headset as a user interaction interface to improve situation awareness during mission execution.

As part of the 9th edition of the Breaking the Surface 2017 we organized an Innovation Tuesday, the whole dayprogram dedicated to lectures about the creation of corporate spin-offs, on how to attract investments and tips and tricks in starting such a company. Robotics experts shared their experience in commercializing robotics-related technologies with the rest of interested participants and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Innovation Tuesday was held on 3rd of October while Breaking the Surface was held from 1st until 8th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia).More than 180 participants from marine robotics field and its applications - marine biology, maritime archaeology, maritime security, geology, oceanology etc. participated in BtS programs.

As part of Innovation Tuesday, 8 lecturers presented their experience and knowledge. The event was concluded with round table on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

The EXCELLABUST project meeting was held in Biograd na Moru, Croatia on 5th October 2017 during the Breaking the Surface workshop. The meeting was attended by Nikola Mišković, Ivana Mikolić (both LABUST), Edin Omerdić (UL), Marc Carreras, Joseta Roca (both UDG), Marco Bibuli and Angelo Odetti (both CNR). Meeting goals were to get familiarize with each partner's activity since the last meeting and establish a detailed meeting schedule and working plan for the next 12 months.

Croatian National Television (HRT) hosted our member Nikola Mišković in science show Prometej. He introduced wide Croatian audience with LABUST work and his successful career. Nikola talked about the importance of the latest researching results in underwater robotics, Horizon2020 subCULTron project in Venice, new cooperative systems and many more. On journalist’s question what it’s needed to do to keep young experts in Croatia, he answered that first of all it’s necessary to provide them with the environment in which they can show their excellence. He and many more experts from the Faculty of Electrical Engineeringand Computing decided to stay because they have access to finance from EU, which allows them to work here in Croatia.

UNIZG-FER LABUST members Nikola Mišković, Marin Bek and Milan Marković were presenting our spin-off project H2O Robotics on European Robotics League (ERL) Robots Major Tournament in Piombino, Italy. H2O Robotics is part of H2020 aPad project, which proposes the transformation of Autonomous Unmanned Marine Surface vehicle into commercially attractive, sustainable and innovative products that both address societal challenges and is highly competitive in global markets.

UNIZG-FER LABUST is actual developer of the aPad, responsible for all project activities while Research Support Centre (CePI) participating in the development of the business plan and exploration of an exploitation path.

ERL Emergency Robots Major Tournament 2017 was held from September 15th- 23rd in Piombino, Italy. ERL tournament is a civilian, outdoor robotics competition, with a focus on realistic, multi-domain emergency response scenarios. It’s open to the public and anyone interested can attend as a spectator.

UNIZG-FER LABUST member Matej Celega participated at the 6th edition of the Festival of Science and Innovation "Trieste NEXT" on 21st - 23rd September 2017. The festival was held in Trieste, Italy, the European capital of science for the year 2020. LABUST member in collaboration with Maritime Technology Cluster FVG Scarl and ISSIA – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche presented aPad, a product of a spin-off company H2O Robotics. aPad a revolutionary multipurpose platform is a result of years of work and experience of the laboratories in various research and development scientific projects.

This year's festival has visited about 50,000 visitors. The largest interest of aPad and LABUST was shown by students and potential business and research partners, which is an excellent motivation for further work and confirmation of invested effort and knowledge. “Sea” was in the focus of the festival, with key topics such as Marine Biology, Trendy Maritime Engineering, Research in Antarctica and many other sea-related professions. Festival launched two major initiatives with the idea of joining the business and research world: "EuroBioHighTech" and "NEXT Maritime Technologies' Day"; within which it’s a more detailed presentation of aPad products and work of the LABUST was held.

International Field Workshop “Photogrammetry in Underwater Archaeological Research- Theory and Practice” will take place in Cultural Centre, Tkon, Croatia from 27-30 September 2017. The workshop is organized in the framework of the Croatian Science Foundation projects EXCELLABUST and AdriaS- (Archaeology of Adriatic Shipbuilding and Seafaring). The goals of the workshop are introducing the participants to the theory and practice of the photogrammetric photo and video recording, for the needs of underwater archaeological research, taking into consideration all its advantages and constraints. Our member prof. dr.sc Nikola Mišković is one of the workshop’s director, together with the main director dr.sc Kotaro Yamafune (A.P.P.A.R.A.T.U.S. Llc ) and prof. dr. sc Irena Radić Rossi of the University of Zadar. The main organizers are the University of Zadar, University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and A.P.P.A.R.A.T.U.S. Llc., Japan and Institute for Maritime Heritage ARS NAUTICA, Tkon, Croatia.

UNIZG-FER LABUST members Marin Bek and Milan Marković will represent our spin-off project H2O Robotics on European Robotics League (ERL) Robots Major Tournament in Piombino, Italy next week. H2O Robotics is part of H2020 aPad project, which proposes transformation of Autonomous Unmanned Marine Surface vehicle into commercially attractive, sustainable and innovative products that both address societal challenges and is highly competitive in global markets.

UNIZG-FER LABUST is actual developer of the aPad, responsible for all project activities while Research Support Centre (CePI) participating in development of the business plan and exploration of an exploitation path.

ERL Emergency Robots Major Tournamet 2017 in Piombino, Italy, September 15th-23rd is a civilian, outdoor robotics competition, with a focus on realistic, multi-domain emergency response scenarios. It’s open to the public and anyone interested can attend as spectator. Spectators do not need to register and the entrance is free.

As a part of SeaFest 2017, UL research team (Daniel Toal, Edin Omerdić and Romano Capocci) attended a two-day Marine Trade Show, the Digital Ocean Conference and Our Ocean Wealth Summit at NUI Galway. The Marine Trade Show showcased some of the highly innovative products and services emerging from more than 60 companies and organisations across all sectors of the marine economy. The Digital Ocean – Ireland’s Marine Engineering and Technology Conference featured a selection of international marine technology companies, innovative Irish Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Ireland's technology and research centres, focusing on specific opportunities for technology innovations to drive the global blue economy. Our Ocean Wealth Summit forms a key part of the Government’s integrated plan for Ireland’s marine sector, Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, and brings together world renowned speakers, industry experts, business development agencies and the Irish business and marine research community for focused discussions on this year’s theme of ‘Rethinking Boundaries and Innovation for a Sustainable Marine Economy’.

In addition to discussion about ongoing research activities and possible collaboration, UL team invited participants to register their institutions to EXCELLABUST Marine Robotics Database (http://excellabust.mmrrc.ul.ie).

The EXCELLABUST 1st review meeting was held at Research Executive Agency, Brussels, Belgium on27th June 2017. The meeting was attended by Zoran Vukić, Ivana Mikolić (both LABUST), Edin Omerdić (UL), Massimo Caccia (CNR) and Pedro Ridao (UDG). Meeting goals were to get familiarize the Officer and the reviewers with EXCELLABUST activities and to acknowledge the Officer’s and the reviewers’ comments.

The workshop was held from 3rd until 10th June 2017 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

This course had a goal to bring together experts in maritime and nautical archaeology, as well as specialists in related scientific fields, to discuss with course participants the full spectrum of maritime and nautical archaeology in the Mediterranean. The course was divided into four thematic units:

UNIZG-FER LABUST members Nadir Kapetanović and Đula Nađ participated in OCEANS '17 MTS/IEEE conference. Technical programme lasted for three days, from Tuesday, 20.6., until Thursday, 22.6. There were close to 40 exibitors showcasing their companies, as well as research laboratories and universities related to marine robotics research.

Nadir Kapetanović presented early results of his PhD thesis in a paper "Development of model predictive guidance for underactuated marine vehicles: From simulations to experiments", and Đula Nađ presented the final validation results of CADDY project in a paper named "CADDY Project, Year 3: The Final Validation Trials". They used this occasion to discuss about marine robotics topics from their research fields with world-renowned experts from both academia and industry. They also promoted Breaking the Surface workshop organized by LABUST, which attracted much attention among conference attendees.

On Friday, May 19, 2017, the 2nd Innovation Management Training named “University Entrepreneurship” was held at University of Girona, under H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". This highly interactive training was held by Mr. Jeff Skinner, who is the Executive Director of the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Besides this, he leads MBA entrepreneurship electives and many co-curricular student activities at the School.

The goal of the training was to: get into the mindset of an investor who is asked to finance a new idea for a business, develop a commercial strategy for a technology being commercialized, brainstorm a minimum viable product, and finally discuss dos and donts of launching a new venture.

As part of H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", prof. Pere Ridao, dr.sc. Patryck Cieslak, Albert Palomer, and Dina Youakim held a tutorial titled "Intervention AUVs" on 17th - 18th May 2017 at the University of Girona. Topics of the tutorial were: direct and inverse robot manipulator kinematics, use of robotic manipulators attached to an underwater vehicle, motion planning and control of such systems.

EMRA '17 Workshop on EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications was organized at the University of Girona from May 15 to May 16, 2017, as a part of H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". The goal of this workshop was to bring together academia and industry representatives from all around EU, who work in the field of marine robotics, so that they can present their work, exchange ideas, and discuss about the development of marine robotics in the future.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Rafael Garcia and Dr. Ricard Campos from the VICOROB, University of Girona (Spain) gave a tutorial titled "Underwater Image Processing and Photomosaicing" on 11th - 13th April 2017 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content.

LABUST presented itself at the Festival of Science, on April 28th, 2017 at the Technical Musem in Zagreb. Elementary and highschool students from Zagreb and many other cities of Croatia, who visited the event, had a chance to see and learn something about marine robotics and exploration of the underwater world. aPad, which is being developed by LABUST and partners, has been showcased as an example of a modular marine vehicle used for such purposes.

The UdG team visited Ocean Business Southampton (UK), the second most important fair on underwater technologies in Europe. The fair was held from 4th to 7th April 2017 and it gathered more than 300 exhibitors with the latest innovation on the market. Attending to fairs like Ocean Business gives the partners of the EXCELLABUST project the chance to meet face to face with the leading European companies and institutions in Underwater robotics.

During February and March of 2017, Anja Babić was a guest researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for research of intelligent systems for automation (ISSIA) where she was supervised by Dr. Marco Bibuli and Massimo Caccia.

The main results of the staff exchange are available in the detailed news content. The research plan and report for the visit are available in the repository.

Prof. Nikola Mišković visited the University of Limerick - UL (Ireland) and the group Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre - MMRRC from 17th March until 22nd March 2017. During his stay, he held several meetings with MMRRC group leaders Prof. Daniel Toal and Edin Omerdić, and MMRRC members in order to present H2020 EXCELLABUST project activities to each other and discuss future collaborations.

The Drone & Tech Expo Irelandtook place in Dublin, 10-12 March 2017. UL has spent those three exciting days showcasing their latest research and technologies, and meeting interesting and interested individuals and company representatives from Ireland and beyond.

The Drone & Tech Expo, supported by the Unmanned Aircraft Association of Ireland (UAAI) and IAA, is not only one of the two main drone events in Ireland, but also the only one targeting both professionals and general public. The event only grew more popular after its first edition in 2016, which attracted over 50 exhibitors, and 2000 visitors. Both the drone community and the general public made this event a great success, and we are looking forward to the next edition!

LABUST presented itself at the event "Days of UNIZG-FER on MIOC". The event took place at the XV Gymnasium in Zagreb on March 2nd. Students of this math-informatics oriented gymnasium had a chance to see and learn something about underwater robots, namely aPad and aMussel, which are being developed by LABUST and partners.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computingof the University of Zagreb, and Heron Robots have signed a Memorandum of Agreement. It was signed by the UNIZG FER Dean Professor Mislav Grgić, PhD and the CEO of Heron Robots, Professor Fabio Bonsignioro. The Memorandum was signed with the objective of promoting academic cooperation in education, research, and innovation, considering both agreement Parties’ common interests in academic, scientific, and cultural affairs.

UNIZG FER LABUST Project Manager Ivana Mikolić participated in information session Coordinators' Day (Amendments / Reporting and Payments) in Brussels for Grant Coordinators on 14th February 2017. The session covered legal aspects, business processes and IT tools used to prepare amendments and reports, with particular attention to the financial aspects and eligibility of costs.

The exam was also attended by PhD students from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (Croatia), employees of the Department of Control and Computing, as well as guests from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Sarajevo (BiH), University of Limerick (Ireland), and also University of Dubrovnik (Croatia): Mato Baotić, Zoran Vukić, Edin Omerdić, Filip Mandić, Đula Nađ, Armin Dajić, Almir Salihbegović, Nedim Osmić, Goran Vasiljević, Ante Zglav, Tamara Petrović, Ivana Palunko, Domagoj Tolić, Zdenko Kovačić, Barbara Arbanas, Juraj Peršić, Marsela Polić, Matej Celega, and Ivan Lončar.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Dr. Edin Omerdić from the University of Limerick (UL), Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre (MMRRC) gave a tutorial titled "Modelling and Simulation of Marine Craft" on 18th - 20th January 2017 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content.

FIRST® LEGO® LEAGUE (FLL)is an international program that promotes the interest for the science and technology of youngsters between 10 and 16 years old. They are invited to have fun and get involved in technology through a yearly challenge robotics competition. In the contest, they will have to show their abilities to perform as a team, to innovate and to solve real problems of the society. This year the challenge was related to the collaboration between animals and humans for a better society. Girona edition (28th of January 2017) counted on 36 teams (around 300 students) and more than 100 volunteers. The event was a great success and 600+ attendees enjoyed it. More about FLL Girona.

The Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) participated on University of Zagreb Fair 2016 as part of the Faculty of electrical engineering and computing (FER) among more than 30 faculties. University of Zagreb Fair 2016 was held from 17th until 19th November 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia.

Members Anja Babić, Filip Mandić, Ivan Lončar and Marin Stipanov presented current projects and collaborative projects with other groups from FER and also developed equipment - surface vehicle PlaDyPos and the underwater vehicle LAUV.

High attendance of high school students, young faculty students and other interested parties helped in spreading awareness about research potentials in underwater systems and mobile robotics in general.

Edin presented a paper User Interface for Interaction with Heterogeneous Vehicles for Cyber-Physical Systems. ICARCV 2016 conference, organized by Nanyang Technological University and technically co-sponsored by IEEE Control Systems Society, was focused on both theory and applications, covering control, automation, robotics, vision and emerging technologies, including cyber-physical systems. The paper provides a brief overview of research activities about development of user interfaces for interaction with heterogeneous vehicles in smart cyber-physical systems.

Project Manager Ivana Mikolić from UNIZG FER held an invited talk "How to get and implement successful EU project" at Project Management Forum organized by Croatian chapter of Project Management Institute (PMI Hrvatska) on 10th November 2016. Through the lecture she presented LABUST research activities and projects, and also discussed the main project management characteristics at the public institution with business representatives.

Dr Marc Carreras from the University of Girona attended the IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) workshop in Tokyo (Japan) on November 6-9th, 2016. The presented work was entitled “Online motion planning for underwater inspection” and proposed the use of path planning algorithms for AUVs in applications where the robot needs to adapt online its trajectory for inspection or safety purposes. These algorithms generate trajectories under motion constraints, which can be followed without deviations, to ensure the safety even when passing close to obstacles. View planning algorithms are also combined to decide the movements to be executed to discover the unexplored seabed or target and to cover it with a camera or sonar. The workshop was attended for a wide international audience which presented other interesting advancements related to AUVs.

"Fjord ecosystems on the West Antarctic Peninsula - hotspots of biodiversity and response to climate warming (the FjordEco Project)"

given by Prof. Craig Smith, University of Hawai’i​ at Manoa, Honolulu, USA.

The lecture took place on Tuesday, 25th October 2016, starting at 10:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

The University of Limerick - UL has hosted an Open Days 2016 event on the 20th and 21st of October 2016. The event was a splendid success with more than 12,000 prospective students, their parents and teachers visiting the Campus to learn about the UL experience, inform themselves on the available courses, visit the many research labs operating at the university, and talk to the current students, lecturers and researchers.

The Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering introduced the prospective students to the many robotics and communications undergraduate courses available within the ECE Department, while the MMRRC researchers presented some of our ongoing research activities, including the EXCELLABUST project, and demonstrated the control systems for underwater robots and the head tracking camera system used to assist ROV pilots, which all drew much attention from the future UL students.

Juan David Hernández from the University of Girona attended theIEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2016) in Daejeon (Korea) on October 9-14, 2016. The presented work was entitled “Planning Feasible and Safe Paths Online for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Unknown Environments”. It proposed an AUV framework for mapping unexplored environments while planning feasible paths. The presentation included simulation and in-water trials, which were conducted over natural and artificial marine environments. The proposed framework not only calculates paths that are more likely to be followed by an AUV, but also takes into consideration the risk associated with such paths. This allows the vehicle to safely navigate through the unexplored environment while moving close to nearby obstacles. The conference in which this work was presented is one of the most important events for the robotics community in the world.

During H2020 EXCELLABUST summer school Breaking the Surface, representatives of all partners and Advisory Board memebers gathered and held a project meeting. The project meeting was held on 5th October 2016 in Biograd na Moru (Croatia).

Meeting goals were to get familiarized with each partner's activity since the last meeting, establish a detailed meeting schedule, work plan and deliverable list for the following 12 months, and to make detailed plans for EMRA’17.

During the 8th edition of Breaking the Surface 2016 we organized an Innovation Tuesday program and dedicated the whole day to lectures about the creation of corporate spin-offs, on how to attract investments and tips and tricks in starting such a company in the form of Innovation Management Training.

Innovation Tuesday was held for the first time on 4th of October while Breaking the Surface was held from 2nd until 9th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia).More than 220 participants from marine robotics field and its applications - marine biology, archaeology, security, oceanology etc. participated in BtS programs.

As part of Innovation Tuesday, 11 lecturers presented their experience and knowledge, together with one demonstration of a robot developed by a start-up company:

during the 1st EXCELLABUST summer school which was organized as part of Breaking the Surface 2016. Breaking the Surface 2016was held from 2nd until 9th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and more than 220 people participated in the program.

during the 1st EXCELLABUST summer school which was organized as part of Breaking the Surface 2016. Breaking the Surface 2016was held from 2nd until 9th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and more than 220 people participated in the program.

More about the speaker and lecture is available in detailed news content and here.

during the 1st EXCELLABUST summer school which was organized as part of Breaking the Surface 2016. Breaking the Surface 2016was held from 2nd until 9th October in Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and more than 220 people participated in the program.

8th International Interdisciplinary Field Workshop of Marine Robotics and Applications Breaking the Surface was held from 2nd until 9th October 2016 in Biograd na Moru, Croatia.

BTS2016 was organized as a 1st EXCELLABUST summer school and this edition broke all records: more than 220 participants from various fields (marine robotics, marine biology, marine archaeology, maritime security, oceanology etc.) joind BTS!

Dissemination of research is a must nowadays. Back in 2009, at the University of Girona and inspired in dissemination techniques of MIT, three professors of Computer Vision and Robotics Institute designed the R2B2 workshops. These 3-day workshops consist on building underwater robots out of recycled materials in a low cost basis. Teams of 3 to 5 students from 12 to 16 years old, conceive, design, build and test their own prototypes at the University. The workshops were held in March, April, May (two events) and July 2016.

Since EXCELLABUST project started, 4 R2B2 underwater robot’s construction and water testing for youngster’s workshops have been done at the University of Girona. Around 50 students from different parts of the area of Catalonia, build 14 fully functional underwater robots at CIRS building.

Members of the Laboratory for underwater systems and technologies (LABUST) Filip Mandić, Ivana Mikolić and Zoran Vukić have presented laboratory achievements and equipment at booth at the Rijeka Nautic Show 2016. LABUST has presented its own products: autonomous surface vehicle PlaDyPos and underwater tablet casing. Rijeka Nautic Show was held from 23rd until 25th September 2016 in Rijeka, Croatia.

Rijeka Nautic Show judges awarded LABUST with an Innovation Award for its showcased products!

Zoran Vukić, Nikola Mišković and Đula Nađ participated in the 10th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems (CAMS'16) that took place from 13-16 September 2016 in Trondheim, Norway. LABUST research activities were presented in a form of 7 scientific papers. Prof. Vukić gave a plenary talk entitled "State and Perspectives of Underwater Robotics". The next CAMS'18 will be organized by LABUST in Croatia!

Nikola Mišković presented a paper at the Conference on Underwater Communications and Networking (UCOMMS'16) that took place on 30 August - 1 September 2016 in Lerici, Italy. The conference series is focussed on working towards an adequate physics-based understanding of the propagation of communication signals underwater and the performance of necessary higher-level protocols with the objective of supporting the intelligent choice of standards, as a foundation for interoperability.

The lecture will take place on Thursday, 29th September 2016, starting at 15:00 in Grey Hall at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. More about the speaker and the talk can be found in the detailed news content and here.

Two times German startup founder award winning, Martin Reents, arrived to University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing on 20th and 21st September to hold lectures on fundamental decisions in founding startup businesses, and on radical changes in hospitality in hotel business.

Lecture content:Your first 5 decisions when founding a startup
If you start out on something new you have to take some decisions first. Not all of them are equally important. Some decisions are rather preliminary and can or even have to be changed every once in a while. Startups call that euphemistically a “pivot” and they are proud of their ability to pivot fast whenever needed. Other decisions last for the rest of your live. It’s these choices which are really important and need a solid foundation.

Martin Reents will walk the audience through this process of becoming a founder and entrepreneur. His talk is based on his own experience as a founder of several business startups and his work with social entrepreneurs: “I never started out with the intent just on making money. Rather, I wanted to change the world, make it a better place to live. And the money followed”

A project meeting was held in Newcastle (UK) on 16th June 2016, one day after the EMRA'16 workshop. The meeting took place at the University of Newcastle and all partner institutions were represented. In addition to progress reporting, the main topic of the meeting was organisation of the upcoming Breaking the Surface 2016 workshop.

During June and July 2016, Nadir Kapetanović was a guest researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Institute for research of intelligent systems for automation (ISSIA) where he was supervised by Massimo Caccia and Dr Marco Bibuli.

Major results of the staff exchange are available in the detailed news content. Detailed research plan and the report are available in the repository.

The Institute for Research of Intelligent Systems for Automation - ISSIA, National Research Council of Italy - CNR, organized the first S&T training in the scope of H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics". The training was held from 19 to 20 June 2016 in Genova, Italy at CNR and was open to all members of the project consortium.

The first day was focused on building an Unmanned Marine Vehicle and it covered the following themes:

Mechanical design and construction,

Hw/Sw design & implementation,

Visit to CNR-ISSIA Marine Robotics laboratory,

while the second day was focused on cooperative control and perception for heterogeneous Unmanned Marine Vehicles with topics on:

Cooperative guidance and mission control,

Cooperative perception and environment characterisation,

Human-robot interaction languages,

Use of UAVs for ecosystem monitoring.

More about the speakers and their talks can be found here while a short report from the training is available here. Photos are available in our Gallery.

LABUST members Nikola Mišković and Marin Stipanov presented LABUST activities and projects during the Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Challenge Europe (SAUC-E'16) that took place in NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, La Spezia, Italy from 3 - 8 July 2016. We organized a promotional booth and Nikola Mišković gave a talk "Humans and robots - buddies in the underwater". The most successful teams during the competition were awarded with free registrations for "Breaking the Surface 2016"!

Newcastle University's School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering organized EMRA on 14th and 15th June 2016 in Newcastle, UK. Organised under EU projects EXCELLABUST and CADDY, EMRA brought together a diverse range of speakers, from ongoing FP7/H2020 projects, industry, end-users and stakeholders. The interdisciplinary event provided an excellent opportunity for networking and cross-fertilisation of ideas in marine robotics, enabling technologies and applications.

In a single track conference programme over two days 18 speakers gave their lecture and participated in discussions. Presentations from ongoing EU funded research projects were mixed with presentations from industry and end users.

On Saturday, 5 June 2016, the MaREI Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy hosted a 'discovery day' event as a part of the Cork Harbour Festival. 'Discover Oceans of Energy' was a great opportunity for MaREI to open the doors of the UCC Beaufort Building in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork, Ireland, to the public. The facilities comprise a 2,600m2 tank-hall that house four different wave tanks and a suite of electrical test infrastructure, alongside scientists and engineers engaged in cross-disciplinary research covering a range of fields such as Marine Renewable Energy, Marine and Coastal, and Sustainable Energy Research. As part of the MaREI centre, the UL team took part in this event presenting the lab infrastructure capacities. We did testing of our I-ROV’s in strong ocean currents simulator tank and we presented our ongoing research projects: EXCELLABUST, MARINET, MRE ROV etc.). During the event, the public had an opportunity to engage in some hands-on marine and energy teamed activities.

Anja Babić participated in the course Practical adaptive control held by Dr. Anuradha Annaswamy of the Active-adaptive Control Laboratory at MIT and organized as part of the EECI International Graduate School on Control from the 31st of May to the 3rd of June 2016. The lectures covered the following topics:

In May 2016 Joseph Coleman from University of Limerick gave a talk on Pint of Science event in Limerick, where he promoted EXCELLABUST project and BtS 2016 Workshop, raising the public’s awareness of both.

Pint of Science is an event where scientist and engineers ditch the lab coats and deliver their research tales in a fun, engaging and approachable way by bringing them to the local pub. Some of the most interesting and knowledgeable scientists and engineers gathered in Limerick on the 25th of May 2016 where people were invited to sit back, listen and engage with the presenters over a pint.

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Massimo Caccia from the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), the Institute of Intelligent Systems for Automation (ISSIA) gave a tutorial titled "Modelling, identification and motion estimation of unmanned marine vehicles" on 24th - 25th May 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.
The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial, are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content and here.

More than 2,000 students got a chance to get to know the laboratories' members, their research and academia activities, and the equipment and technologies used.

Job Fair is a career fair that was held on 9th and 10th of May in the halls of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), University of Zagreb (UNIZG), Croatia. It gathered the best students and companies in the field of electronics, information technology and computing.

MaREI is a marine and energy-based research, development and innovation hub based in Ireland. The aim of Symposium was to showcase the breadth of research activity and to enhance collaboration between centres.

LABUST members Nikola Mišković, Milan Marković, Anja Babić, and Ivan Lončar and LARICS members Stjepan Bogdan, Tamara Petrović, Barbara Arbanas, and Goran Vasiljević participated in the hardware and software integration workshop and GA meeting as part of the H2020 project subCULTron. The workshop took place at the BioRobotics Institute which is part of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pontedera, Italy from the4th to the 8th of April, then concluded with tests in the lagoons of Venice on the 11th of April.

During the workshop, one aPad and several aMussel robots were assembled and tested.

UNIZG-FER project managers Mirjana Dozan, Ivana Mikolić and Mirjana Stjepanović participated in Excellence in Horizon 2020 proposal writing and project implementation training that was held 15 - 16 April 2016 in Opatija, Croatia. The training was held by European Training Academy.

During February and March 2016, Filip Mandić was a guest researcher in the Underwater Vision and Robotics Research Centre (CIRS) at the University of Girona (UdG) where he was supervised by Prof. Marc Carreras.

Major results of the staff exchange are available in the detailed news content. Detailed research plan and the report are available in the repository.

In front of more than 8,400 industry professionals CADDY partners presented equipment they developed in the scope of the project.

Oceanology International visitors were first ones that got the chance to see the newest and improved version of LABUST surface platform PlayDyPos 2.0. We also exhibited our autonomous underwater vehicle BUDDY.

In front of more than 8,400 industry professionals CADDY partners presented equipment they developed in the scope of the project.

Oceanology International visitors were first ones that got the chance to see the newest and improved version of LABUST surface platform PlayDyPos 2.0. We also exhibited our autonomous underwater vehicle BUDDY.

Members of LABUST participated in the workshop "Fundamentals of the intellectual property for the researchers" organized by the State Intellectual property office which took place at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing on the 4th March 2016. The workshop covered the following topics:

CNR has organized on 16th February 2016 an open door event for high school students. General description of CNR activities with respect to robotics related research and development, as well as hands-on demonstrations have been carried out. Furthermore, visits to CNR laboratories have been carried out.

The EXCELLABUST project organized an open door event on 3rd February 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, in collaboration with JOBSTEM project. During the event, more than 120 students from elementary school "Tin Ujević" in Zagreb visited Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST) and were introduced to the area of marine robotics. The main goal of the visit was to promote STEM fields to children and thus motivate them to pursue education and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields.

Daniel Toal, of the MMRRC at the University of Limerick, gave a talk during the 'Robotics in space, Underwater, Industry and the Law' event on the 2nd February 2016. The event was jointly organised Engineers Ireland, Mechanical and Manufacturing Division, and Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Daniel spoke of underwater systems and discussed the importance of remote presence as offshore operations are often prohibitively expensive and remotely controlled robots could be used for monitoring, repairing and maintaining the future of marine renewable energy farms.

All partners gathered in Zagreb for a successful kick-off meeting of the Horizon2020 project EXCELLABUST. The kick-off meeting was held on the 21st of January 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Zagreb (HR).

After the meeting, project partners visited some of the Science and Research Laboratories at the host institution:

As part of the expert visit within the H2020 project "EXCELLABUST - Excelling LABUST in marine robotics", Prof. Marc Carreras and Dr. Narcis Palomeras from the Computer Vision and Robotics Research Institute, University of Girona (Spain) gave a tutorial "High-level architectures and path planning" on 19th - 20th January 2016 at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

The agenda, lecture descriptions and materials used during the tutorial, are available in the repository. A short report is available in the detailed news content, while photos from the event are available in the gallery.

OCEANS'15 Genova Conference & Exhibit was held from 18 - 21 May 2015 in Genova, Italy. Technological innovation is a key element of sustainable use of ocean resources, provision of ecosystem services, as well as long term economic growth. The MTS/IEEE Oceans series of Conferences promotes awareness, understanding, advancement, application and implication of marine technology.

CADDY project was presented through lectures given by representatives of all CADDY partners at the conference and also at CADDY project's booth in the exhibition space.